Technical Field
The technical field relates to cable management and deployment and associated brake actuation.
Background Information
Various types of brake actuation have been developed for cable management systems. For instance, some brake actuation types are embodied in the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) system and other similar “smart brakes” based decoy deployment systems. The cable deployment control brake uses an electromagnetic solenoid, multiple high friction rotors and stators and a spring for power off actuation. Large numbers of friction generating surfaces (e.g., 8 stators & 7 rotors) may be required to provide braking torque for the loads generated over operationally significant deployment flight envelopes. The large number of rotors and stators are required to generate sufficient torque due to the force generation limitation of solenoids given the volume available for the IDECM system. The force generated by each solenoid is a function of the physical size (number of windings) of the solenoid and the power available (electrical current) for actuation. The amount of force generated is also dependent on a number of tightly controlled physical design elements. The assembly tolerances must be held very tightly (+/−0.001 inch), and manually adjusted at the time of manufacture to ensure proper operation. The solenoid actuated brake is designed to hold the cable at any given length, at maximum torque capacity, once stopped without power applied. However, it cannot hold a load at an intermediate torque rating or provide a no torque condition without power being applied. Thus, there is room for improvement beyond current cable management systems.